Testing an under-confidence view of Imposter Feelings: Ability-confidence alignment and discrepancy

Imposterism defines the experience of persistent self-doubt. Previous research has implied, but not directly examined whether, high ability and low confidence predict imposter feelings. We examined whether a discrepancy between ability and confidence predicts imposterism. We administered cognitive ability measures including embedded confidence questions after every item (Douglas & Cadman, 2021), along with a measure of imposter feelings (Holmes, Kertay, Adamson, Holland, & Clance, 1993; Leary, Patton, Orlando, & Funk, 2001), to 1147 participants across three studies. Polynomial regression with response surface analysis was used to detect any relationships between imposterism and discrepancies between accuracy and confidence. We hypothesised that under-confidence in high ability would relate to higher scores for our IP-related variables. In contrast to our expectations, none of the three studies we conducted revealed this pattern. For both samples including undergraduate students, no combination of ability and confidence predicted imposterism. For our final, general working population sample, participants with average ability and confidence had higher levels of imposterism compared to those with high ability and confidence, or low ability and confidence. Overall, we found limited evidence that imposterism was related to ability, confidence, or a combination of these variables. This finding goes against the theoretical definition of IP as an under-confidence in abilities. These findings challenge common assumptions that imposters have high abilities, and that a gap between ability and perception of it is at the heart of imposter feelings.